Chaotic Confections
by InfinityAgent
Summary: A seemingly harmless round of Candyland turns dangerous when Ward and Skye find themselves trapped in a real-life version of the game. Can they both make it out unscathed?
1. Something New

**A/N:**** This is the first thing I've posted online, so I'm still a bit wary about the whole process. Let me know if you find any errors!**

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I scanned my options, considering the next move. There were only a few choices, but I knew I only had one shot so I better pick correctly. Or else it would be game  
over. "D4." The tension in the air was thick as I awaited her response. She looked once at me, and then studied her own playing board carefully.

"Hit." Skye finally admitted, "You've sunk my submarine." Those were the words I'd been waiting to hear. I'd won. I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in my chair. That had been a close one. "Lucky guess." She frowned, picking the pegs out of her board and putting them back in the side-container. "One more turn and I would've had you beat."

"You found my _carrier_ last." I teased, also cleaning up my half of the game.

"Oh, whatever." Rolling her eyes, she put her half back in the box. "That was the first time you've won out of what, five games?" I shook my head, refusing to engage in further banter. I checked my watch before I could stop myself. "Had enough fun for one day?"

"You're the one who's putting the game away."

"We _always_ play Battleship though." Impatient with how slow I was picking the pieces out, Skye took my board from me and finished the process. "Aren't there any other good games onboard?" I didn't need to tell her that I didn't know. She was the only one who was ever interested in playing something _besides_ scrabble or chess, both of which I was miserable at. She pulled herself out of her chair and dug through some of the cupboards in search of a different game. "Jenga?" A plastic bag full of wooden pieces dangled from her fingertips.

"On an aircraft? Are you kidding?" I laughed, not wanting to admit that I hadn't played before. Properly, I mean. We had a set when I was a kid but all games mostly consisted of letting Maynard win, in order to avoid his fury. It had taken me quite a few beatings to learn not to win. I despised playing when the end result was pre-determined, but at least it had made me quite proficient in cheating… even if it was the backwards way.

"Fine, there's something in the back here." Skye had to crawl practically all the way inside the cabinet to reach whatever was back there. After struggling for a moment or so, she procured a long cardboard box that was covered in so much dust neither of us could read what it was right away.

"Looks like that's been in here a while." I watched her take off her sock and use it to brush away the grime, coughing all the while. "Maybe the original owner's team accidentally left it behind." Skye had finished dusting off the cover, but was holding it so that I couldn't see. There was a goofy smile spread across her face. "What is it? Anything good?"

"I can't imagine why anyone would bring this along, but its Candyland." Skye flipped the box so that the front was facing me. Her observations were correct; it was indeed a game called 'Candyland'. "I used to love this game." Giggling, she brought the box (as well as a great cloud of dust) over to our table. "Sometimes I pretended I was Princess Lolly and lived in Candy Castle."

"Princess who?" I blinked, not familiar with the name though I was sure it had something to do with the game.

"You know," My teammate gestured towards a little girl on the cover who had bright pink hair and a yellow dress. "The lollipop girl." I didn't say anything. "Oh _don't_ tell me." Her voice had gone serious. "You never had this one?" Shaking my head no, I studied the images in front of me. It looked… girly or something. Probably nothing Maynard would want to play, so of course we wouldn't have bought it. I didn't voice my reasoning; some things were better left unsaid. "Well now we _have_ to give it a round."

"It says 'a child's first game'." No, this surely wasn't anything that I would be interested in. "And besides, I don't even know how to play." The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I shouldn't have spoken. They were an open invitation and she knew it.

"It's not that hard." Skye was already lifting the lid and removing mysterious pieces from the box. "I'll teach you."

"Fine." I grumbled. Curiosity was getting the better of me. And it wasn't like there was anything else to do. "But only one round."

"Deal." The satisfaction of winning me over was written all over her face. "Which color do you want to be?" In front of her were four plastic gingerbread men, all lined up in a row. They were each painted a different color: red, blue, yellow, and green. Basic game pieces. "And before you ask, no I don't care what I end up with."

"Blue." I claimed, without hesitation. I was always blue. _'The color of your tears because you're gonna lose.'_ My older brother's taunt rang in my ears before I had the chance to shut it out. I'd always liked the red pieces best but those were his favorite too… and of course he always got his way. It didn't really matter though. It wasn't like it affected actual gameplay at all.

"Really? Ok…" Skye sounded surprised. Maybe that was the one she'd had her sights set on. "I'll be red." She plucked both of the little men off the table and set them down on the very colorful board she'd set up. I had to admit it was quite the eye-catcher. The cartoon characters scattered along the playing path complimented the various candy 'worlds'. It wasn't hard to imagine why a child would be enticed into playing. "Alright the object of the game is pretty simple: be the first to reach the ice cream castle." She pointed to a large building drawn at the end of the 'road'.

"Seems easy enough…" There had to be some sort of strategy involved. Obviously the game was easily rigged; it seemed as though one moved along by drawing cards off the deck instead of rolling dice or using a spinner. Memories of overly-aggressive games of Sorry! filled my mind. Yikes. Perhaps it was for the better I didn't have Candyland as a kid. I was momentarily distracted by a soft clang from the ceiling. A gust of cold air shot out of an AC vent on the ceiling, causing me to involuntarily shudder. I made a note to change the thermostat settings next time I walked past. "Is there some sort of… way to decide who goes first?" Skye was in the process of shuffling the deck.

"Rock paper scissors?" Was she kidding? I couldn't tell whether that was the accepted rule or if she was just making it up. Considering it would probably seem rude to snatch up the instructions and read them for myself, I opted just to defer to Skye's better judgment. After a bit of confusion between whether the hand signs were presented _on_ 'scissors' or _after_ 'scissors', I drew rock and Skye chose paper. "Huh. I thought for sure you were a 'scissors' kind of guy." I wasn't sure what that meant but it didn't seem like something worth dwelling on.

There was a strange, sickly sweet scent wafting through the air. I thought maybe it was caused by the dust that'd come off the box. But if that were so, I would've caught a whiff when Skye was brushing it off, or even when she'd originally brought the game over to the playing table. So what was it? I knew it wasn't perfume; Skye didn't usually wear the stuff and anyways I would've noticed it earlier if she was. My teammate hadn't said anything about it yet… either she hadn't noticed it or she wasn't as intrigued by it as I was. The intensity of the smell increased until I felt as though it was choking me. I could feel the onset of a headache. Before I could stop myself, I fell forward onto the board. Darkness engulfed my field of vision and my consciousness faded out not long after that.

Waking from a blackout was not a situation I was completely unfamiliar with. Usually it came with a new bruise and a split lip, maybe even a slight concussion if I was (un)lucky. Though I was still face-down on a hard surface, I could tell I was no longer resting upon the table. It felt like… grass? I quickly opened my eyes and sat up, ignoring the dizzy sense of nausea the action caused. It was safe to say I was no longer on The Bus. To my left, green grass hills stretched on as far as my eyes could see. To the left, an army of trees and a sign posted on a larger-than-life candy cane that read 'Gingerbread Plum Trees'. I had a bad feeling about this.


	2. The Forbidden Fruit

"Ward?" A voice called out from behind me.

"Skye!" I quickly spun around to see my teammate lying in the overgrown grass only a few feet away. The first thing I noticed about her was that her clothing had changed. Not to say I remembered what Skye was wearing before (I didn't), but something told me that the new set wasn't something she'd have picked out on her own. Skye was dressed in a red and white striped, long-sleeved shirt with blue denim overalls and a shining new pair of crimson converse. It was to my own dismay that I realized I was outfitted similarly, except the stripes on my sleeves and the pigment of my shoes were blue instead of red. "Are you ok?"

"I think so." She slowly sat up, scooting closer to me as she did so. "I saw you pass out and before I had the chance to do anything about it, I was next. Weird, huh?" I nodded weakly, not really listening to her. "Where are we?" I glanced once over my shoulder at the signpost. Skye followed my gaze. "Oh man… what do you think that means?"

"Well…" To be honest, I had no idea. Of course, I'd have to make _something_ up because I wasn't about to admit I was out of the loop. "If this is a dream it's a pretty damn vivid one."

"Everything is so real though." As if to demonstrate, Skye ripped a fistful of grass out of the ground and threw it into the air. The light breeze caught the blades as they fell and carried them away. "How can this all be a dream?" She rose to her feet and went over to examine the signpost more carefully. As she was tracing the carved letters with her finger, I too stood and made my way to her side. Neither of us spoke for a good five minutes before Skye broke the silence. "We're inside the game."

"What?"

"Candyland." Skye faced the forest. "The signpost, the clothing, the landscape… it all adds up." I was reluctant to buy into the theory. How was that possible? I may not be as smart as some of the others, but it seemed like a bit of a stretch. "Look, I don't mean we're actually inside the board. I'm saying somehow this is a simulation of what the game… what it would look like if it were real." Well that made more sense… if even only a little. "But that still doesn't explain how we got here…"

"That doesn't matter." I dismissed, "We can't do anything about that now. We should focus on getting out." How would one normally escape from a dream? I normally didn't experience visions in my sleep so I didn't know through personal experience, but the phrase 'pinch me' was common in books and film. So maybe pain was the key. I turned my teammate so that she was facing me and took a step back. "Hit me."

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical about my intent.

"Just humor me." Though she still looked uncertain, Skye gave my chest a solid shove. It was impressive, but not painful. I encouraged her to hit harder, prompting her to punch my arm. Not good enough; I was fairly used to this type of attack. Finally, Skye gave me a good slap across the face. Obviously it wasn't the worst I'd ever fared, but it did sting. I both waited to see if anything would happen, even opening and closing my eyes a couple of times in hopes of finding myself back on The Bus. But I was still standing on the green grass, so no good. At least it had been worth a shot. Figuring I owed Skye an explanation, I relayed my failed strategy.

"This may sound crazy… but I don't want to leave." Skye glanced once at me, before turning her attention back to the forest. "Not yet, I mean. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience! I just want to explore a little before we go back."

I hated the idea. There was no need for us to stay, not if there was a way to wake up. What if the team needed us back on the bus? There was no guarantee that they'd be able to wake us from the other side… which brought up another chilling thought. What if there was no possible way to return to the normal world? I mean out of all the places to be trapped for the rest of my life this certainly couldn't be the worst, but it wasn't something I wanted to get used to.

Skye must've taken my silence as acceptance because she had already started walking towards the edge of the forest. I saw now that there was a small gap in the thick trees where about a foot of red path jutted out. Her intentions were clear. Even though I didn't want to, I knew I'd have to go along with her. I wasn't going to let this become another red stain across my name. Whether this was the real world or not, I had to protect her. Never mind my duties as her S.O., Skye was my friend. Quite possibly the only real one I'd ever had. So against my better judgment, I followed my teammate to the beginning of the path.

"We're really going to do this?" I gave her one last chance to back out because I was pretty sure she wasn't going to want to stop until she reached the end, and who knew how long that was going to take.

"It beats a regular old game of battle ship." Skye grinned, stepping onto the hard red material that paved a path into the forest. Every three feet the color of the surface changed, alternating between red, purple, yellow, blue, orange, and green. Just like the game board. Go figure. We started walking along the paved trail, Skye confidently in the lead with me trailing cautiously behind. I wished that I had been wearing a gun back at The Bus, though I wasn't certain it would've come through with us. Either way, even though I was pretty skilled at hand-to-hand combat I still felt defenseless in the strange world without an actual weapon.

Truth be told, the land we'd seen so far wasn't very threatening. Though the forest was dense, light shone through the treetops and glittered off purple fruit that hung ripe from the branches, showering light upon both the rainbow path and the violets that sprouted by tree roots. The air smelled faintly of ginger. All of the trees had white frosted faces, unnerving but something I could imagine a child would find enchanting. Since it _was_ a children's game, I guess I couldn't expect any different.

"I still can't get over how realistic everything looks." Skye marveled, eyes focused on the fat tree trunks with bushy tops that surround us. "I bet you could eat one of the sugar plums if you wanted to." I had heard of the fruit, but only in Christmas stories. As a kid I wondered what they tasted like, but we weren't usually allowed candy, especially out-of-the-ordinary seasonal items. The only time I ever remember sweets in the house was post-Halloween and Maynard usually claimed most of that, except all the starburst because for whatever reason he refused to eat them. The only plus side about that was that I'd never gotten a cavity, but that wasn't high on my achievement list.

"Hi there!" A deep, wheezy voice cut through the silence of the forest, startling both Skye and I to a stop. A stout green creature jumped onto the path in front of us. I tensed, ready to jump into action if necessary. "I'm Plumpy, the Last of the Plumpa Trolls! And who might you be?"

"I'm Skye, and this is my friend Ward." Skye introduced, visibly relaxing. Perhaps this monster or whatever it was didn't pose much of a threat. He didn't look very quick or agile, so I was willing to bet I could best him in a fight… though hopefully it wouldn't come to that. Skye seemed to sense that I was anxious to get going. "We're just passing through…"

"Of course…" Plumpy stroked his long, bushy mustache. "Well in that case, you must try some of my delicious crop before you leave!" If that was what it took to get him out of our way, I was in. Even though it went against my better judgment, I stepped off the path and found a tree with branches low enough for me to reach. I was suspicious of the creature, but I had no reason to mistrust the candy.

"You're actually going to do it?" Skye warily watched me from her spot on the trail.

"Want one?" I asked, plucking a ripe-looking fruit from one of the branches. Now that I had it in my hands, the appeal was undeniable. A thin film of sugar was dusted over the skin of the plum and I couldn't help but wonder if it grew like that or someone had added the coating after the fruit was already grown.

"I'm fine…" She trailed off, obviously wanting to say more but not actually willing to carry through with the act. Without further hesitation, I lifted the candied plum to my mouth and bit into it like an apple. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but the sugar plum tasted like an average plum, only a little sweeter. I didn't want to admit it, but it was a bit of a letdown. Some candy indeed. I swallowed the piece that I'd bitten off, but didn't bother eating any more of it.

"Have a nice day…" Plumpy chuckled, before bouncing away into the trees just as suddenly as he'd appeared.

"Not going to lie, that was pretty creepy." Skye watched the space where he'd left as if she thought Plumpy would return. I started to walk back towards the path to rejoin my teammate. "I always imagined him as-" She cut herself off when I stumbled forward, off-balance. I figured I'd just tripped over a tree root or something. I heard Skye say something to me, but it sounded distant and I couldn't make out the words. I found myself falling backwards and for the second time that day, falling out of consciousness.

**A/N: You wouldn't believe the amount of random research I have to do for this story haha**


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